The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
Interpretation
True courage involves acting virtuously even when no one is watching.
This quote emphasizes the essence of courage as an internal virtue rather than a display for others. It suggests that the true measure of oneβs bravery lies in their ability to act rightly and with resolve regardless of external validation or observation, thus highlighting the integrity of personal conviction over the need for approval from others.
In practice
During a leadership speech, a speaker might use this quote to emphasize the importance of ethical decision-making.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.
Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!
The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight.
This is the Cuzco asking you to pull on your armor and, mounted on the ample back of a powerful horse, cleave a path through the defenseless flesh of a naked Indian flock whose human wall collapses and disappears beneath the four hooves of the galloping beast.
Our Southside is a place apart: each piece of our living is a protest.
The Jiu Jitsu I created was designed to give the weak ones a chance to face the heavy and strong.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.